


Touch In The Dark

by ChangingbacktoBellamort500



Category: The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: Evil Plans, F/M, Manipulation, Mommy Issues, Older Woman/Younger Man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-05-19
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:21:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24138796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangingbacktoBellamort500/pseuds/ChangingbacktoBellamort500
Summary: My 200th fic for the boys“If you lock two monsters in the same cage they either fight to the death or team up. That’s what is happening here, I’m just not sure which one they have picked,”“They are people, not monsters,”“I found out long that both are the same thing,”This is the start of how Madelyn Stillwell’s and Homelander life became intertwined. Two monsters in the darkness, in a cage, trying to decide whether to tear each other apart or team up.
Relationships: The Homelander | John/Madelyn Stillwell
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12





	1. First Meeting

The leaves had shifted to the colour of autumn, red and orange, some a reddish orange hue in between with the random yellow leaf popping up now and then. Summer had vanished, but the warm weather had stuck around.

Madelyn Stillwell parks her car. It’s old and she should buy a brand new one, but she can’t bear to part with this vehicle yet. It was the only thing her ex-husband had given her that was ever useful. 

She had kept two things after the divorce - this car, and the wedding ring, which she never took off.

Not for nostalgic reasons, she wasn’t the type to do sentimental, but because she had earned that it. It was hers to keep.

She checks her makeup in the mirror, when satisfied that she looks flawless Madelyn gives herself a moment to prepare herself before going into Vought.

Today was her first day, Vought only ever hired the best, she knew that she was one of the finest people in the country at PR and managing people. But it was easy to shine among the incompetent and subpar.

Here she would work with people just as skillful, ambitious and manipulative as she was. It was here they would challenge her, unlike anywhere she worked before. This was her dream. The last few years had been leading up to here, to this place.

Madelyn knows she has what it takes to outshine even those who were the best or at least get them out of the way. Everyone had there weakness, but she found early on life the exceptional succumbed them more easily.

She gets out of her car, slamming the door. Madelyn smoothes down her blue dress. The only sound is her heels clicking across the pavement underneath her shoes. Others would find the almost silence eerie, but she found it soothing, almost.

* * *

Madelyn sits at her desk. She’s in department z-three-x, it’s one of the lowest departments at Vought, but she had to begin somewhere. That was fine, but she had been here three hours and done nothing because there was zero for her to do. This frustrates her, but Madelyn doesn’t let that show. She was always good at keeping her genuine emotions hidden.

There are lots of other desks in this room. Madelyn can already tell who is never getting out of this department. Like her, they had shined among the subpar, but unlike her, so many of them didn’t have the skills to do it among the best.

“Hey Newbie,” Gregory the head of the department calls over to her. The balding man has a coffee stain on his tie, he’s in charge should in Madelyn’s view set an example and look immaculate. “Can you take these up to level 53, they are having an important meeting up there,”.

Madelyn smiles and replies, “I can,”. The smile is genuine, not because she enjoys nothing more than an errand girl, but because it gets her away from her desk. It gets away from all these other people. The smell of sweat, stale coffee and junk food that lingers here. 

Level 53 was high up, not the highest you could go at Vought, but a respectable position. 

Madelyn accepts some paperwork from Gregory, cringing internally when his sweaty hand touches her arm.

“Just a warning they have their potential biggest assets up there, but he can be difficult. He has a tendency to either get people from this department fired or use to them to perfect his laser skill,”.

“Laser skills?” Madelyn asks, happy but not letting it show when Gregory removes his hand.

  
“Yeah. He can shoot lasers from his eyes. It’s how the person who had your desk before you died. He’s an asset those higher don’t care what he does, especially to those who are replaceable,”.

“Thank you for warning me,”.

  
Madelyn isn’t scared. She knew what went on at Vought before she took the job. In fact, she knew a lot more about the company than a good majority of people who worked here. Before she took this job she had worked as part of PR team for Senator Jaxx Sampson. 

Jaxx was a greedy man. It didn’t surprise her that he was corrupt, along with greed he driven by desire and the need to seem important. She had lost track of how many times he had bragged to her, how many secrets he whispered to her while she laid naked in his bed. One of the most important was how and why children were suddenly popping up all over the place with powers.

It had nothing to do with God or evolution. All to do with Compound V.

* * *

Eight middle-aged men sit around a table, paperwork scattered around them. The younger blonde man sticks out like a tiger among cheetahs. He reminds her of a childhood friend, Alex Alan. A little in looks, but more in the way he sits and the vibe he goes off. 

  
Madelyn’s mind for a flash of second remembers standing in the rain, skipping school, the day Alex took a gun to school. The day he killed twelve of their classmates and a teacher. She had cared for Alex as much as could for anyone, but he damaged and broken, dangerous because of it long before they became friends.

She shoves thoughts of Alex out of her mind as she hands over the paperwork to a man’s who hair is slowly graying. He immediately dismisses her yet the younger man, the asset as Gregory had called him has different ideas. 

Madelyn sees his face change, it’s like a cat getting ready to pounce but still unsure whether it should yet.

“What’s your name?” He asks her. 

  
“Madelyn Stillwell,” 

“Tell me Stillwell, you come from department z-three-x, they always send the grunts up for these things. Now usually those people come in here afraid,” He says, leaning back in his chair. “Some visibly, others hide it better still they stink of fear and their hearts beat away like a bird being held in the hand of a man. Yet you aren’t,”.

“John, we don’t have time for this today,” one of the men in suits tells him gently. Almost as if they were speaking to a child, a child building up to a tantrum. 

“No, you don’t have time. I have all day. And stop calling me fucking John. It’s Homelander,” Homelander hisses through gritted teeth.

Madelyn raises an eyebrow. They have no control over him. Homelander was potentially one of their biggest assets yet they had no control over him and that was a disaster in waiting.

  
“You haven’t answered me,” Homelander reminds her.

“This ends three ways. I leave this room, finish work, go home and return tomorrow. I leave this room, and later on get fired. I have enough connections to secure myself another job elsewhere,” Madelyn answers. Not once letting her face reveal what she’s feeling. “The third I end up the same way as the previous person who sat at my desk. Being scared of it won’t prevent it and a massive waste of energy,”.

Madelyn studies Homelander’s face. He seems to find this answer acceptable, she can tell by the way his lips twitch and his eyes. The eyes were the window into the soul; they tell a lot about someone even if they don’t know it.

“Now that’s settled can we get back to the matter in hand,” the man in a suit sitting at the head of the table. “I’m sure Stillwell has work to be getting on with,”.  
“I want her to sit in,” Homelander informs the room. “I haven’t decided how I feel about her yet,”.

The man at the head of the table sighs and waves his hand at an empty chair. Madelyn sits down, she’s not in a rush to get back downstairs, anyway.


	2. Advantage with a dash of disadvantage

Hendrix tears open a tiny pack of sugar and pours into his coffee. Madelyn watches the dark-haired man with interest as she takes a sip of her herbal tea.

She knew he was Homelander’s current manager or handler as Debbie with the desk next to hers had told.

Hendrix’s had taken the job because no one else would, why would they when Homelander in Debbie’s words “Impossible to work with and unstable,” she had whispered it like she had expected Homelander to jump out of the shadows.

She couldn’t figure out why Hendrix’s who clearance was level 78 wanted to meet her for coffee. She had accepted; Madelyn was never one to turn down being with someone with more power than her. It was an opportunity to make a potential ally.

“Homelander wants you take over my role,” Hendrix tells her, stirring the sugar into his coffee. “What I don’t understand is why. He has met you once and you’ve worked at Vought less than a week, yet he’s demanding you take on a job you have yet to show you can handle. You wouldn’t know why that is?”.

“I don’t have a clue,”

This is one of those rare occasions when Madelyn is telling the complete truth. She doesn’t know. Inside she does a small cheer. This was an unexpected opportunity. It could make her someone at Vought. Madelyn could skip several steps climbing up the ladder, an advantage many would never have.

“I’d be more than happy to him out of my hair. He’s a nightmare you’re more than welcome too,” Hendrix begins, he smiles a little showing off his pearly white teeth. “But why you, of all people,”.

“I wish I knew,” Madelyn replies. It would put many others off by Hendrix’s and other descriptions of Homelander, but she isn’t. Not one of them had figured out how to handle him. Caved into his demands far too easily rather than coaching him into their way of thinking. “Do you think those on 82 will grant his demand for me to take over?”.

“Without a doubt, whatever he wants he gets they have invested far too much time and money in him over the years they would never risk losing him now. But I am warning if you take the job he will push you. Homelander will make absurd requests like cook him fifty eggs just because he can,”.

* * *

Madelyn sits with a glass of wine in her hands. TV on in the background. She’s not watching it. No, she’s too busy being pissed off at those on 82.

  
They wouldn’t give her access to their file on Homelander. She didn’t have enough clearance for it. Tomorrow they would let her go in blind, they were trying to set her up for failure.

She had contacted Jaxx; he knew of Homelander but not anything about him. It was something Vought were tight-lipped over.

The only information they had given her on Homelander was his powers and explaining he was indestructible. All of which she had already known through the gossip grapevine at Vought.

Vought were practically saying “Here is an indestructible God like figure to handle, we aren’t going to tell you anything about him that may help you. Good luck,”.

They wanted her to fail, they.were underestimating her, which many in life had found that was a mistake. She would just have to figure out what made him tick without a helpful cheat sheet.

Madelyn had done it with others. She could do it with Homelander.

* * *

Thirty-three minutes. That’s how long she and Homelander had sat in silence. It didn’t bother her; she scribbled away through paperwork, circling around bits of the plans Vought had to roll Homelander out to the public she saw as flawed or downright just going to result in failure.

Homelander had sat there almost as if he were a curious child studying a parent at work. Until he grew bored, and that’s when the silence was broken.

“Why haven’t you asked me why I asked for you to take over my day to day?” Homelander asks, he’s examining her face. Madelyn recognizes the look on his face. She had worn it openly as a child and learned to hide at as an adult.

  
It’s the look of open mistrust, analysing everything something does or says, searching for something unknown. She had lost track of of how many times her father Lynch had chided her for that look, hit her for that look. 

“Because you want me too,” Madelyn answers honestly. “That’s the first thing you expected me to ask. If I had, you wouldn’t have told me the truth, anyway. It would have wasted both of our time,”.

  
“Most people do what I want you know,” Homelander replies, confused that her answer had anything to do with simply not something because it was what he wanted.

“I’ve been told which is incredibly boring. People just doing what you want straight away, no you have to manipulate them into it. It’s much more fun,” Madelyn tells him.

And it is. People immediately just doing what you want gets dull after a while whereas people doing what you want because you have manipulated them into it never loses its thrill. 

“Plus people who just do what you want I’ve overwhelming found you shouldn’t trust. They do so out of fear or greed or both, people can stop being afraid and there is someone who can always offer their greedy hearts more,”. Homelander digests what she's says. He seems sastfied with answer.


	3. The Fascination with Danger

Madelyn sits on a cream sofa. She forces her body to relax, her facial expression soft as she stares at the pale man wearing glasses sitting in the chair.

Vought’s policy of their employees must see a therapist a minimum of four times per year was irritating, but she understood why they did it. How else could they know what was going on inside people’s heads? 

In a job where secrets and lies grew daily, they had to know who was at breaking point. Would it be Sarah with red hair and short spilling her guts to a journalist like they were speaking to a priest at confession or Frank with yellow teeth after years of smoking, going home to his wife and telling her everything to unburden his soul.

Yes, she understood why it was necessary, but she resents having to take part. Madelyn doesn’t want or need anyone inside her head. Not that she would let them.

“What was your father like?” Straight to trying to find out whether she had some Daddy issues. Madelyn wants to tell him he’s doing this entire thing wrong. First, he should try to put her at ease, then ask about her childhood before probing deeper and asking how a parent was. But she doesn’t.

  
“He was a quiet man,” She replies. “He liked to come home after work go to his study to read,”.

Madelyn is lying. Lynch was always screaming and shouting even when asleep his piggish like snores would ring out through the house. The only time he was ever silent was when he went hunting. He lost his job when she, three years old, never got another. His “study” was a chair in front of the TV that smelt of beer and piss. She had never seen him read anything more than a takeout menu.

But she would not tell this stranger any of that. Even if he were her best friend’ in the entire world or the love of her life, she wouldn’t tell him about her parents or childhood. When she ran away at sixteen years old she reinvented herself and her parents.

Madelyn takes a moment to study this man. Creased mud brown trousers, his shirt is brand new with the price tag still sticking out of the back. He fiddles with his wedding ring, the stench of martial boredom clings to him. On his desk is a picture of a gap-toothed girl no older than four or five.

  
“What about your mother?” 

Madelyn doesn’t have time to spin an untruth about her Mom because she’s provided with a much-needed interruption by knocking on the door and then Abigail bursting in. 

“S-sorry to interrupt but we have a situation,” Abigail huffs, cheeks red and face a little sweaty like she had sprinted here. “we need Miss Stillwell,”.

“I must protest at this interruption,” the Jack Daimler sighs, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

  
“File a complaint with 82,” Abigail replies, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Homelander says he needs her to prep for him tomorrow. Now if you want to tell him no, be my guest. Remember your last interaction. He broke both of your arms and would have crushed your head if it hadn’t been for Mr Edgar,”.

Madelyn notes this with interest. So Jack would know about Homelander’s past. 

“If it helps we can rearrange this session for this evening,” Madelyn says. “But right now Homelander needs me,”.

* * *

“I thought we talked about you scaring the shit out of people to get your own way,” Madelyn says, standing the doorway. Her eyes were drawn to the scorch marks on the desk and wall.

“I tried being charming, but that got me nowhere,” Homelander says, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. Madelyn rolls her eyes. She knows he saw her do it by his frown.

“Anyway, I need your help for tomorrow,”.

  
They already gone over this a million times. Tomorrow he would as a normal member of the public attend the downtown annual street fair. This sunny, joyous day will take a grim turn when three men open fire on the crowd, Homelander will save the day. 

Vought would then enter after a week or two into negations to sign him up with them. The fact he was already a product of Vought or they were staging this entire thing was irrelevant. Truth and reality were meaningless, the lies the public brought were the new facts.

He was more than prepped on this, but she would not argue with him when they were so close to the next step of greatness for the pair of them. She needed him to not fuck up tomorrow just as much for herself as he needed not to for himself.

  
“Okay, what do you need from me?” Madelyn asks softly. She figured out day two after taking over his day to day that he responded better to a gentle tone of voice.

“I need to know how many people I let die before I intervene?” Homelander asks, he’s acting like an unsure child questioning a parent to give them direction. Madelyn finds this happens a lot, God she’d love to have a look at files. Who had made him like this?

“Three, the plan is three,” Madelyn answers. “I’ve taken care of everything. All you need to do is save people. Show people how incredible you are. Leave everything else up to me,”

Homelander looks unsure. She doesn’t know what to do to reassure him. “When all else fails you, use instinct,” that’s what her mom had once told her. So Madelyn does. She lightly places her hand his arm. “Let me take care of this, let me take care of you and the world will be our oyster,”.

For a moment he tenses at the unexpected psychical contact. But once he sees it’s for comfort, not a threat, he relaxes and she can feel his body growing less rigid as she uses her thumb to caress where her hand rests.

  
“If sure everything will go okay, then I’ll have to trust that. After all, Vought will hold more responsible than me,” he reminds her, wrestling back control. Wanting to distract from the vulnerability of his unsureness.

It was the strangest thing. He was arrogant and cocky one moment, but the next uncertain, unpredictable in the confusion of that uncertainty. It was a dangerous mix with the average person, but with his powers it was a whole new level. Yet Madelyn was more fascinated than afraid of it.

Her mom had once told her that her curiosity and pull towards dangerous would one day get her killed. Madelyn remembers it’s vividly, the way her mom had sighed and then pull her close. The smell of bleach and cheap perfume that clung to her skin. 


	4. Thrive

Jack Daimler palms are sweaty. That’s all Madelyn can think as he paws at her. Bedding the therapist at Vought wasn’t in her plans this morning. But his marriage boredom was his weakness that she would exploit until he spilled all those secrets he knew about Homelander.

Vought wouldn’t give her access to his files until she had earned enough clearance. Madelyn wouldn’t wait that long. She wanted to know now and Jack, sex starved Jack was the solution.

Madelyn wasn’t enjoying his clammy hands roaming over her body or his tongue in her mouth. He isn’t her type in the slightest. But she learned early in her youth that attraction and having sex with someone wasn’t necessary. 

She moans in the right place, whimpers in at the correct time like an actress playing a part. Jack doesn’t notice, just like men before him never did. And her mind isn’t really connected to her body right now. Madelyn years ago to separate the two.

* * *

Madelyn shifts to her side and props herself up on her elbow. Jack has a peaceful sex afterglow look on his face. Her fingers caress a scar on his arm. She thinks it must be from the surgery to fix it after Homelander broke his arms. His other arm has a similar scar just higher up.

“If you want me to tell you about him, just ask. I was against you not having access to his files in the first place,” Jack replies. Madelyn raises an eyebrow. “I’m not as stupid or as naïve as you think Stillwell nor did I buy that shit about your father. Although you did a superb job most in my profession would have believed you,”.

  
“Could have said that before I took you to bed,” Madelyn replies. She isn’t angry. In fact, this is the type of behaviour she respected.

Jack chuckles. “Yeah, I could have. Hell, I probably should have if the thought hasn’t occurred to you yet about my wife and telling her every time you need a favour it would eventually,”.

“I can see you have a high opinion of me,”

  
“Jaxx Sampson is a private patient of mine. I don’t just work for Vought. He spoke about you often,” Jack answers. 

Madelyn hadn’t known Jaxx was in therapy. If anyone who needed it was him. 

“So are you going to ask me about Homelander or not or do you need time to nurse your ego for a moment that someone can see through the act of Madelyn Stillwell?,” 

“I will nurse my ego later, I’m busy being suspicious about why you would be so willing to tell me,”.

  
“Fear. See, he doesn’t know yet that he doesn’t need Vought. Not really. A year or two down the line he will and once that happens well he’s loose cannon now,” Jack begins, entwining his fingers with hers. “But right now Vought has some reigns on that loose cannon and I dread to think,”.

Madelyn thinks about it for a moment. It sounds reasonable enough to her ears. Even if he was playing her. She could and would pick a part his life. He didn't care about his wife, that had been more than clear when he was screwing her. But his kid, keeping his marriage and family unit going. The image of perfect mattered to him.

  
“Okay. Let’s go with I believe that why tell me, why do you think I matter in this. I’ve known him less than a month and he still hasn’t decided how he feels about me,” Madelyn sighs. “Some days I swear he wants to kill me and others I don’t,”.

“He picked you. It was instinct. He doesn’t know why he did by the way. It was instinct something he wants from you and he isn’t aware of it yet. Once I explain his childhood you’ll understand,” 

“And once I understand you expect me to use to keep him on a leash?” 

“Yes,” 

* * *

Madelyn sits nursing a glass of vodka. Jack and left ages ago. The only way to describe everything he had told was holy fuck and who in their right mind thought any of that was a wonderful idea. Sure, she knew Vought had gone to low depths, but there was low and then there was this.

  
She feels a sort of pity for Homelander. Jack hadn’t told her to help him, no it had been about keeping him under control. It wasn’t for a second fixing the damaged that had been done. 

Homelander life had been cold, lonely, isolating and painful. Sterile without touch or affection. It was hardly surprising he is what he is.

Madelyn can work with what he is. Damaged people had been a sort of weakness for her. Even as a child. She would always pick the child that was already broken beyond repair. Never making them better, but showing them how to use the shards of themselves. 

They were like dolls to her that no one else wanted or love, but she cherished and nurtured back to health. But not the healthy everyone else thought was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 0 Homelander in this i know but I promise to make up for that in the next chapter.


	5. Curiosity of A Twisted Angel

There is blood on Homelander’s face. Dried crimson on his cheek, it doesn’t bother him. Madelyn thinks it gives him a twisted, angelic look. She’s not sure if she wants to wipe it away or leave it there forever.

  
He had killed ten people today. All dangerous criminals. She had watched the live feed of it. Homelander had enjoyed it, took far too much pleasure in it. Later on the video, edited, would end up on the news. Make it less obvious how much joy he got from killing. The public liked heroes; they liked Homelander; the public liked his wholesome image. 

They wouldn’t like to see him enjoying killing. The way his face twitched from a frown into a grin. But she had faith in the editing team to fix until Homelander’s wholesome image was all the public saw.

Homelander is in a strange mood. He often is after killing. Madelyn knows she has to walk a fine line when he’s like this. 

“Do you look like your mom?” Homelander inquires out of the blue. Madelyn tries to gage what answer he wants from her, she settles on telling him the truth. What harm could it do. 

  
“My mom always claimed I was a spitting image of my dad and my dad always claimed I was a clone in looks of my mom. When I look in the mirror I see both,”.

She wonders whether Homelander has ever looked in the mirror and tried to figure out which feature came from who. Maybe he looks like neither of his parents, but resembled a grandparent or aunt or uncle. 

“A blend of both. Interesting. Is it just in looks or personality?” 

“You’re asking a lot of questions today,” Madelyn comments, shifting in her seat. “But to answer your question, not really. I think both in different ways struggled with that,”.

By struggle in their own she meant Lynch had tried to beat her into being what he wanted and her mom, Madeleva let him. Madeleva had struggled to love her. It was obvious by the way she treated her vs how she treated her siblings. The way she kissed and cuddled them. She would appease Madelyn, anything to keep her quiet and out of the way.

“Are they still alive?” Homelander asks, Madelyn is briefly reminded of a boy called Peter who she was in Kindergarten who spent the day following her around. Babbling about his family and asking about her. 

  
“No. They passed away shortly after I married my first husband,” Madelyn lies. 

“That’s the one that died in a car accident, your second you divorced and the third is still missing,”.

“I never told you any of that,”.

“It’s on your file,” Homelander informs her. “It was very interesting read. So many marriages in such a short amount of time,”.

“Seeing as you seem so interested in my past today. Why don’t we talk about this over dinner? I haven’t eaten since lunch and you, well actually when did you last eat?”

“Yesterday morning….I think,”.

"Exactly. Wash the blood of your face,".

* * *

Madelyn had picked the place to eat. Janto’s, he knew her, and she knew him, they weren’t friends but she liked the old man. He was sweet and an exceptional cook, always let her sit in the back out of the way of prying eyes.

Homelander had looked offended when she wanted to drive there instead of letting him fly them there. She told she didn’t like heights. A lie. She didn’t trust him to not drop her.

Still, he had accepted the answer with a slight pout. 

  
She had picked what they ate for dinner, a simple pasta dish. Madelyn had wine, he had water. Now they were into dessert and back on to the subject of her private life.

“So why did you marry your husbands if you didn’t love them?” Homelander asks, before popping a spoonful of triple chocolate ice cream in his mouth.

  
“The first was for money, the second was lust and the third we both had the same goals in life and thought we could help each other reach them,” Madelyn replies. This is probably the most she’s ever been truthful with anyone, ever..“No one was happy than when Grant died in a crash and I inherited all his money then I met Cole and he was hot, for a moment I was blinded by passion but that got old fast. Got divorced and quickly. Met Henderson, and we both knew what we wanted from life. Married because it would help further our respective careers. It did, which is one of the reasons I got employed at Vought,” 

  
“But then he was no longer useful to you,” Homelander comments, his tone causal but there is something in eyes. Something dangerous that says he’ll know if she lies.

“I didn’t love Henderson, and he didn’t love me. But I respected him and thought he did me. We were trying for a baby and then I find him in bed with another woman,”. Madelyn answers, taking a sip of wine. She remembers the feel of Henderson blood on her hands. The way he had been stupid enough to fall asleep in their bed hours after screwing someone else in it. It wasn’t the first time she had killed or been behind someone being killed. But it was the first time it had spur of the moment. Nothing but rage.

“Can you imagine trusting and respecting someone enough to raise a child then find them screwing someone in your bed? It’s funny after he was dead I was sad. But then the instinct to survive kicked in. The beautiful thing about husband number one is the money he left me. Wealth can make things disappear. Things like a corpse,”.

Homelander isn’t disgusted by her confession. If anything, she sees fascination and sort of twisted glee about it in his face before it’s replaced with a softer, more childlike one. His ability to jump from one mood to the other never ceased to amaze Madelyn.

“I would have done the same thing,” he admits finishing up his ice cream. “I was right to pick you. Everyone at Vought thought I was crazy to pick someone who hadn’t proven themselves yet to take over my day to day. To kick start me getting into the public eye. But I could sense you were different,”.

Madelyn isn't sure if she should take it as a compliment. After all, Jack had told her about him, the way Homelander viewed things weren't exactly normal. But then again she couldn't claim to be in any better. 


	6. What her mama taught her

Homelander sits with his arms folded across his chest, anger simmers underneath the surface. Madelyn can see it would take one wrong word or movement for his rage to explode and consume everything in its path.

It excites and terrifies her at the same time.

He would never be happy about going on TV and having to talk about his childhood.

Except it wasn’t his. It was a fabricated fairytale created by the very people who had robbed him of a childhood. Stolen from him simple things like having parents or going to school, affection and warmth.

“I’m not doing it,” he repeats for the fifth time. He is, he has to. But her current tack isn’t winning him over. 

  
“Okay fine. Don’t do it,” Madelyn replies. He isn’t expecting that response, she can see it in his eyes. “But when you don’t they will replace me with someone who they think can manage you better than I can,”.

“They won’t,” He answers back, cocky and sure of this.

“They will. They’ll say they were right, and I wasn’t experienced enough to handle the job they gave me and let’s be honest here to shut you up,” Madelyn shoots back. “And that means they’ll replace me with someone who doesn’t give you unlimited freedom like I do. Who sees you as nothing more than a job that doesn’t care about you like I do,”.

Madelyn watches him process this statement, many emotions playing out across his face before setting on suspicion.

“You care about me?” 

Madelyn has his attention now, on her hook, and whatever she says next will decide whether he does what she needs him to do. 

  
“I do. Aren’t I there when you need me? Don’t I immediately put aside whatever it is I am doing when you say you need me?” Madelyn comments. “Have I ever made you feel what I do for you is a duty rather than something I want to do it?”

“Well no,”

“Exactly. Haven’t I told you about my private life. Don’t I take care of you?”

She’s playing on his desire to be cared for and she knows it. But what other choice does she have?

It’s his weakness, and she’s using to get him to do what has to be done. There is a tiny part of her that feels a spark of guilt, but she pushes it aside. 

“If I do it, will you be there?” Homelander asks, Madelyn already knows she’s won and that he will do it.

“Yes. Of course, I will. And I promise afterwards you’ll no more engagements for the day and we can do whatever you want for the rest of it,”.

Madelyn wants to laugh. For a moment her voice had sounded just like mom's the woman she swore she would never become. Soft and sweet offering bribery, dabbling in appeasement. She could have sworn her mom had never taught her a thing, but yet clearly she had taught that skill. 


End file.
